Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain.

Public plan not dead (yet)

WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce Committee resumed work Thursday on major health care legislation, voting to establish a government-run health insurance plan, as top Republicans stepped up their criticism of the ambitious legislation.

By a vote of 35 to 24, Democrats defeated a Republican effort to eliminate a section of the bill that would create the public health insurance option.

“Our constituents should have the choice of a public plan,” said Representative Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “There is nothing to be scared of here. No one will be forced into the public plan.”

The House preserved some kind of public option but how bad it’ll suck (especially once the Senate gets ahold of it) remains to be seen. The Dems quoted in the article don’t sound too enthused. As for the Republicans, I’m amazed that anybody listens to a group of people that’ve been making the same bullshit sky-is-falling predictions since the introduction of Medicare.